The Woods
by danniisupernova
Summary: A Season 1 AU from Six Degrees of Seperation. Boomer's life spirals out of control taking everything down with it. GaetaBoomer. Yes that's right! GaetaBoomer.
1. Chapter 1

"I'm telling you, it's the only way to go."

"Oh come on Starbuck! You can't be serious."

The blonde woman sat up from her slouched position, taking her feet down from where she'd propped them on the table.

"Dammit, Valerii, I can't have you pining away over some knuckledragger down here in the rec room forever. Do it."

Boomer reached over and took one of Starbuck's cigars from the other woman's front pocket. Since the Chief had called it quits with her, she'd been experimenting, deciding that a little self-destructive behavior had never hurt anyone. Or rather it didn't matter that it had. After all, she was probably a Cylon right? So whatever she did to this body didn't really count did it?

She lit the stogie and chewed expectantly on its end. "With who?" The two women surveyed the room. There were male officers by the truckload. Starbuck began shuffling cards. "Hot Dog?" She flicked her eyes over at Boomer. Boomer shrugged, making a face. 

"If he's hot for anyone on board, it's you Kara." Starbuck wrinkled her nose. "Well maybe I need a booty call too." She laughed. _Easy for her to laugh,_ Boomer thought. _She's always trying to get over something this way. It's like nothing really matters to her. _

"This is stupid. None of these guys would go for me."

"See, that's half your problem right there, Valerii. It's all about confidence. Plus there are plenty of guys who would go for you. And plenty of guys who would go for anything with a pair of tits on them. Plus I've heard some guys right _lusting_ after you." She let the word roll off her tongue.

Boomer rolled her eyes at her friend. "Like who?"

Starbuck took another swig of the ambrosia she'd won off of Colonel Tigh the night before. "Like….like…" she swung her head around as the rec room door squealed open. "Like Gaeta."

Boomer looked at her, disbelieving. "Gaeta? Felix Gaeta?" She snorted. "You're out of your frakking mind, Thrace."

"Oh c'mon! Like it's so hard to imagine!" Starbuck gestured over at him with her bottle. "I've seen him checking you out and throwing dirty looks at the Chief." Starbuck took another drink, smiling. "I'll bet he doesn't know what happened between you and the Chief yet. Besides," her voice dropped low now, "I hear he's hung." The two of them started to chuckle again. Boomer was glad that she was with Starbuck. This was the first time in a long time she'd been laughing and meant it.

"Hey Gaeta!" Kara shouted. "Dammit Kara! I didn't say yes yet!" Boomer laughed, pretending to be panic-stricken. Starbuck whispered across the table at her "You might want to turn on the water-works now."

Boomer smiled a little. _I really wish I could be like her. I wish that I could do this._

"What's up?" Gaeta glanced back and forth between the two of them.

"Well Felix, I was wondering if you would do me a favor, since we're such old card playing buddies." Kara smiled craftily at him.

"Starbuck I'm not lending you any money." He smiled at Boomer and she knew he was trying to get a rise out of her. She wanted to smile but didn't.

"So lovely Felix, I have a question for you." Starbuck poured him a drink and handed it to him. "Which one of us would fit better in your rack?" Gaeta looked at her, one of his eyebrows raised. "So my choice is either become one of Starbucks many insignificant conquests or get beaten to death with a big heavy spaceship part by Chief?" He looked back and forth between the two women.

"Oh didn't you hear?" Starbuck looked at Boomer a little maliciously. "Tyrol broke little Boomer's heart. She's free trade now." Sharon shot an incredulous look of hurt at Kara. Gaeta looked at her and said, "Well if it's any consolation, I would have picked you anyway."

Boomer smiled at him a little, her stomach doing flips. _I can do this, I can do this, no big deal…_

------------------

"So, this never happened right?"

She pulled her shirt on quickly, her name reverberating over the comm to every corner of the ship. "What do you mean?"

He shifted and sat up in his rack. "I mean, you only did this for a good time right? Not to get back at Tyrol or anything? Not because…you actually like me or anything?"

She thought about how odd it was to hear uncertainty in his voice. She didn't want to be the cause of it. She liked Gaeta too much for that.

She turned to look at him and seeing the tattoo on his chest remembered the feel of it under her tongue and how willingly he'd kissed her. It had seemed like forever since anyone had kissed her and she had been grateful for it. Hell, she was grateful now.

She smiled at him. "If you don't want me to tell anyone, I won't." She pulled on her greens and her flight suit over that. She bent down so she was eye to eye with him. "Besides, it's not like this isn't going to happen again right?"

Gaeta gave her one of his trademark skeptical looks. "That's what they all say and then…no calls, and I never see them again." Boomer laughed. She wanted to kiss him again. Instead she got up and threw her hair into a ponytail.

"You're such a girl, Gaeta!" she shouted back to him after she got to the door.

-----------

"So'd ya get some?" Kara was looking over her briefing pages.

"You know I did." Sharon grinned at her. Starbuck grinned back and held up her hand. Boomer slapped it. "That's my girl. Over the Chief yet?"

Boomer continued to grin. "Give me a few more rounds with Gaeta and I promise I will be."

Racetrack, who was sitting behind them, leaned in to hear more.

"I always thought he might be gay. What with all the Baltar worship."

"Trust me when I say he's not. And not every guy who doesn't want to frak you is gay, Kara."

"Oh, now you've hurt my feelings. Of course they are."

----------------

Racetrack was sitting out on the deck waiting for her Raptor to be prepped. When Cally finished Racetrack thanked her.

"Hey did you hear about Boomer?"

Cally looked taken aback. "What about her?"

"She frakked Gaeta."

Cally's mouth fell open. "I thought she was trying to get back together with the Chief!"

Racetrack smirked over at Tyrol who was walking towards them, probably to rake Cally over the coals for taking a five second break. "I guess she's moved on. And I honestly can't blame her. I mean come on, frakking Chief practically accused her of being a Cylon! I wouldn't stand for that if I was her."

Cally grinned a little at her shoes.

"Cally, what are you doing? I need the synchronizers replaced in Vipers 2 and 6." Chief said impatiently. "Okay, Chief." Cally was giggling a little bit under her breath. Racetrack gave him an amused look and boarded her Raptor, waiting for Boomer. "See ya later Chief." She could barely hide the laughter in her voice.

Cally and Tyrol walked towards the grounded Vipers. "What was that about?" he asked her.

Cally tried to hide her smile. "You don't want to know."


	2. Chapter 2

"Gaeta?"

"Yeah?"

"How does the Cylon detector work?"

Gaeta let out a sigh. They had crashed out in her rack while Starbuck was off ship on some fact-finding mission. It was the first leave time that they had gotten together in a week but both of them were too tired to do anything about it. They had practically collided in the hallway and then had floated into the officer's quarters, talking about why Gaeta was so interested in biogenetics. He had expected Sharon not to understand what he was saying, but pretend she was listening anyway. Instead she had practically battered him with questions, keeping him talking for as long as she could.

They lay next to each other in their clothes. Gaeta kept thinking that it should be more awkward then it was. He liked that Boomer didn't seem to expect too much from him; it made him more inclined to give it to her.

"You know I wish everyone would stop asking me about that. We're supposed to at least _pretend_ it's confidential." She started to laugh when he said it, so irate and mock serious. It gave her pause, that no matter how bad things got for her, Gaeta never made them worse. He didn't always make everything better, but he could at least take her mind off of things. Like the fact that she might be an enemy agent and that her entire life might be a lie.

He smiled at her.

She loved (no, she _liked_, she _liked_) that he never made it a concession to smile at her. She poked him in the ribs. "So, how does it work?"

"You know I could lose my job for telling you something like that?"

"Yeah and who would they replace you with exactly? You, unlike me, have some job security."

"How is it that you don't have job security? How many people do you actually think can fly a Raptor?"

"Any idiot could fly a Raptor. You could fly a Raptor for Gods sakes."

"Insulting me will get you nowhere."

Sharon just laughed.

She grew serious. "If I was a Cylon, would you…would you turn me in?"

Gaeta looked away from her, an almost shocked look on his face. He had no idea what to say to that. He saw the earnestness in her eyes. He wished she were joking. He looked back at her and half-grinned. "I don't know Boomer. I don't know what I'd do. I just…I'd try and…"

Boomer tried to return the grin, wishing she hadn't said anything. "And here I thought we were just sleeping together," she said, trying for Starbuck's flirtatious bravado.

He didn't say anything for a few seconds; he just looked her over as if still trying to answer. It almost made her blush. "Hmmm. Funny how it only takes one simple question from a woman to reduce some high I.Q. toting genius to a stuttering thirteen year old."

She was trying to break the tension and failing, miserably. She kept looking up and around her, refusing to meet his eyes, even though there was really nothing to look at. He opened his mouth to say something when the shades on her rack were pulled aside. It was Dee.

"Gaeta, you're needed in the CIC. It's urgent."

"Why didn't you call me over the comm?"

"It's not fully functional at the moment." Dee gave Boomer an apologetic look.

"How did you even know that I was here?" Gaeta seemed almost angry. "I didn't tell anyone that I was going to be here."

Dee looked awkwardly at the both of them. "I…um…uh…lucky guess." She gave them both a very unconvincing smile. Gaeta gave her a skeptical look. "Oh you know how it is around here!" she sputtered.

He sighed and got up to leave. He pulled on his dress jacket and gave Dualla an irritated look. "Could you give me a second?"

"Well if that's all it takes!" Dee snapped back. She turned on her heel and looked back, giving Boomer an aggravated look, shaking her head as if to say 'how the frak do you put up with him?'

"I swear I didn't tell anyone." Boomer put her hands up, holding back her laughter.   
"Just Kara."

"Yeah, because she doesn't have a big mouth at all," he said sarcastically.

They both stopped laughing and just looked at each other for a second. It was one of those moments that had the potential to be incredibly forced and awkward but somehow came very naturally between them.

"Listen, if you're really worried…about what the Chief said," he paused for a moment, wondering whether or not to go on. "I could talk with Dr. Baltar about getting you in as one of the first test subjects."

Her eyes went round.

"You would do that for me?"

"Why not? You're my friend."

Boomer almost smiled, then she remembered what exactly the favor was for.

Felix turned to leave, buttoning his jacket at he went, and running a hand over his hair.

He ran into Dee in the hall.

She gave him a devious grin. "Oh cut me a break Dee! How did you even know?"

She shrugged. "Talk of the ship. Besides, we've worked together too long for me to not know that you're finally getting laid."

----------------

"Dr. Baltar?"

Gaius looked up from his paperwork. He loathed all the military protocol and claptrap that he had to get through in the hopes of completing any work at all. To him, Mr. Gaeta was just another symbol of that: a loyal, idealistic, irritating, albeit bright, young man.

"Yes Mr. Gaeta? What can I do for you?"

"He looks different." He caught her out of the corner of his eye, perched atop his lab table, legs crossed suggestively. She wore her red dress and light sparkled off of her bracelet and caused him to look away from her.

"I need a favor actually."

"And what would that be?"

"This should be interesting." Six smiled, a picture of wickedness.

"I need a test."

Baltar smiled at him nonchalantly. "What kind of test?"

"Be careful Gaius, he's bigger then you." Six said with mock concern. "Sir, please don't screw around. You know what test I mean."

"Well I can take your blood sample right here if you'd like-"

"It's not for me."

Six snorted. She walked lithely over to Gaeta who was still standing in front of he door. "I told you he looked different. Some hot young_ thing_ has got him in her pocket." She looked at Gaius. "Just like you."

"What?!" Gaius looked directly at her, but she was suddenly gone. "It's not for me sir, it's for…a friend of mine." Gaius heard the almost imperceptible pause. Then he remembered the rumors about Gaeta and Lieutenant Valerii that had been ricocheting around during games of Triad for the last few days.

"A friend of yours, Mr. Gaeta?"

"That's what I said."

Gaius smiled benevolently at him. "Just bring the lieutenant in so I can get her samples." Felix looked at him, disbelieving. _Does __**everyone**__ frakking know?_ he thought.

Gauis turned back to his paperwork. "Oh don't be so shocked. You know how everyone here likes to gossip as if they were back in the schoolyard. I'm just glad you're finally having some fun Felix. You're wound far too tight."

Gauis was so concentrated on looking omniscient that he missed the angry look Gaeta shot at him. He also missed Gaeta's exit, until the hatch slammed.

----------------------

"Hey."

The Chief had found her.

Sharon was sitting in the rec room, reading, waiting for Starbuck. There had been a stir a few hours before about a Cylon prisoner and a hidden nuke, but the radiological sweeps were all turning up clean. She knew that Starbuck was the one who had been sent to interrogate the Cylon. She was anxious for news, even though she didn't want to admit why.

She sighed. "Hey."

"So…you and Gaeta."

She didn't say anything. It hurt just to be near him.

"I heard from Jammer."

She didn't look at him. She didn't answer, she just stared at her book.

"Sharon…are you trying to get back at me? Because if you are-" She turned so abruptly to look at him that he was startled into silence. She looked furious.

"Please. Please Tyrol. Feel free to make this about you. _You_ were the one that ended things between us. It was your choice and you made it. And that's it." She got out of her chair, to go back to her rack. She hoped she would meet Gaeta on the way.

She didn't have to wait that long. He walked into the rec room just as she was making her way to the door. "Sharon, I-" Then he saw the Chief. "Oh. I'm, uh, not interrupting anything am I?"

Boomer gave him a big smile. "Of course not."

The two of them were sitting in the in her bunk, waiting for the results.

"I'm so nervous." Boomer said for what felt like the millionth time. She turned to look at Gaeta. His face was unreadable. "Talk about something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know…anything. Tell me about your parents."

"My father wanted me to be a politician."

"Why? You're not a very good liar."

He shrugged. "I suppose he thought it was glamorous. All those powerful people in Caprica City, controlling the fate of the colonies." He shook his head. "He thought that he wasn't important enough. He was an astronomer on Picon."

"And your mother?"

"She was insane."

"What?"

Gaeta smiled bitterly. "She was always afraid the house would fall down on us. She'd wake me and my father up in the middle of the night and drag us out onto the lawn. Then she would tell my father that the ground was going to disappear. There was never anywhere to go when that happened apparently. I had a fun childhood."

Boomer looked down at her shoes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

"You didn't know." He looked at her, kindly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Finally, Boomer said, "You know, I would try to cheer you up with sex, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't help. And after all, there's really only what, six hours until the results are in?" He grinned at her. "Well you never know until you try, right? And I'm willing to take that risk."

-----------------------

Boomer somehow managed to get him all the way to her rack before pulling him down on top of her. She was terrified, knowing that right now, her blood was being picked apart and combed for anything suspicious. But Gaeta kept her grounded. She didn't think about the future or the past, just the present, when she was with him.

She'd managed to get her shirt off and his belt unbuckled when someone had come storming into the room. They froze. The shades were drawn but they were right outside. A locker shuffled open and then there were what sounded like muffled prayers.

She whispered in his ear, "Try not to make any noise okay?"

Quietly, Boomer wriggled out of her pants and underwear and slid her self down over him, her hand over his mouth. She could feel him laughing against her hand. She leaned down to kiss him. He smoothed his hands over her breasts and she couldn't help it: she gasped. There was a sound outside the rack. "Frak!" she whispered.

The shades were thrown to the side. It was Kara. She smirked at them. "Bad time?"

--------------------------

Gaeta ran a hand through his hair nervously. His rack time had ended fifteen minutes ago and he was rushing to the CIC. He hated to be late.

"Mr. Gaeta!" Gauis Baltar's unmistakable voice rang out in the corridor.

"Can this wait, sir?" He was trying not to be agitated. If Baltar was looking for him it probably meant bad news. He turned to see the doctor standing in the hall, waiting for him.

He had an idea that the bad news was just starting.


	3. Chapter 3

"It's not true."

"Oh yes because you would really know if it was."

"I would!"

"Look, the test doesn't lie. It can't. Do you see that color? Red, red, red, red!"

Gaeta stared at the screen. He couldn't shake the feeling that Baltar was trying to pull some very bad practical joke. The room felt like it was spinning. He sat down.

Baltar put a hand on his shoulder. "You should tell her. She doesn't know."

"That's a good idea Gaius. Get someone else to do your dirty work." Six appeared behind him. "She'll probably kill him if he says anything. It's too bad, really. I think they're really cute together." Six smiled malevolently at Baltar. He ignored her, turning to Gaeta.

"Look, you need to understand that Sharon, the woman we know, is not a Cylon. She's not even aware of her nature. It's like-"

Gaeta threw his hand off. He wasn't listening. "You're not going to tell anyone about this, do you understand?" Gauis' eyes went wide. "I-what?"

"You're not going to tell anyone that you know this about her, do you understand?" Gaeta was thinking at about six thousand miles an hour. He wasn't sure if he could keep it from Boomer, no, he'd have to tell her. But he could keep it from the Commander if he was careful. He would have to get her off the ship somehow. He began to run every idea for a cover story he could think of.

"I can help you."

He turned to look at Baltar. "What do you mean you'll help me? I'm not the one who needs help. It's Boomer."

"Gauis." Six's voice was warning and sharp. "This is a bad idea."

"And I don't need your help!" Gaeta practically shouted. He got out of his seat and started to leave. When he reached the door, he turned back to look at Gaius. "If you tell anyone about this-"

"He'll kill you." Six looked at the young man. "You know Gaius," she began as Gaeta disappeared out into the corridor, "I really don't think you've got the measure of him at all."

------------------

"So, Boomer. Hear you're working on a new guy?"

Boomer shot a look at Crashdown. He was irritating the frak out of her and she was already on edge. _I never would have taken that frakking Cylon test if I had known it would take this long to get the damn results._

"Okay, I'm just wondering." Crashdown said good naturedly. "I'm just glad you're not all hung up on the Chief. He's not worth it."

Boomer snorted. "Gods what is with all the men around me acting like girls lately?"

They continued to fly back to Galactica in silence. "Uh-oh. We're about to land. I better brace myself." Crashdown joked.

The Raptor came down roughly, bumping against the deck twice before, skidding lightly to a halt. Boomer got up and punched Crashdown on the arm. "You know, just once, it would be nice if you didn't say that. It wasn't even funny the first time."

The hatch opened and Sharon was face to face with a furious Cally.

"Gods Boomer! Could you actually _try_ to make my job harder? You practically split the undercarriage!" Cally pushed past the lieutenant. Crashdown passed Boomer on the deck. "What's with her?"

"I have no idea." Boomer stared after her. She was turning to go ask the younger woman what was wrong when Gaeta seemed to appear at her right elbow. He grabbed her and started to lead her away. "What- what is it?"

"I can't tell you here. We need to go somewhere quiet. Somewhere empty."

Fear suddenly gripped her. "You sure are frisky." She smiled, hoping that this wasn't what she thought it was. That this wasn't Gaeta taking her to the Marines to be questioned and then dissected. "Wait," she said weakly. "Wait I need to…talk to Cally. Something's…" she trailed off. The air around her felt thick going down her throat. Then she realized she couldn't breathe. She heard Crashdown catcall at the two of them, but it seemed so far away. She strained to hear what he was saying. Then she saw the Chief from give her an angry look from across the deck. Suddenly it felt as though the roof were falling on her. She tried to pull on Gaeta's sleeve, to make him stop or at least slow down and then he turned to her and

------------------

When she woke up Sharon's first thought was 'blue'. She looked around. She was in sickbay. Neither Gaeta or Doc Cottle were anywhere to be seen.

She felt a slip of paper in her hand. Shaking she unfolded it. It read

"_Test came back positive. u Don't say anything to anyone. /u I'll be back to see you at 08:30._

_-Felix_"

His name was scribbled hurriedly across the bottom. Sharon looked at the words he'd underlined. She crumpled the note in her fist, fighting back tears. She fought the urge to fall back asleep. Her entire mind seemed to be screaming at her, telling her to let go.

(_let me let me, I'll protect us, I'll kill him and then no one will know I'll hide us…_)

But she couldn't do that. She knew she could hurt someone if she didn't do something. She closed her eyes and prayed silently to Artemis, asking for courage and strength.

She threw the covers off of her cot and got up, wearing only a patient's gown. Her clothes were folded on a chair off to the side. She started to get dressed.

Doc Cottle pushed aside the dividing curtain when he heard her moving around. "Hey what the hell do you think you're doing?"

She started, not realizing he was there. "I'm…I'm getting back to work. I just…I was exhausted. Not enough sleep. I'm fine now." She faked a smile for him. Cottle looked at her skeptically, silently appraising her and puffing on his cigarette.

They were both frozen like that for a few seconds before he shrugged. "Well if that's all it really is and you're not sick…" He gave her another look. "You're not pregnant are you?" Boomer shook her head adamantly. "Alright then. You don't have a fever and you're in good health. I was going to kick you out anyway." He turned and left.

Relief washed over her so strongly that she sat back down on the cot. She looked at the time. It was 05:23. She didn't have to hurry.

--------------------

Gaeta was in the CIC corroborating with the Commander about the next series of FTL jumps. The Cylons hadn't shown up lately, but the Fleet needed to be refueled. For that they needed a more remote location, somewhere that would be difficult to be found in.

He was so intent on doing his job and simultaneously worrying about what he was going to do about Sharon, that he didn't notice the Marine Captain who walked into the CIC. It never occurred to him to leave Boomer to twist in the wind. That wasn't the kind of guy he was.

He was bent over his computer terminal punching in numbers and reviewing charts when the marine approached the Commander. She touched Adama's shoulder and kept her voice low as she spoke to him. Adama looked at him, shocked. "I'll be right there." He was clearly agitated.

"Saul!" he barked. "Take over for me. There's a situation in the brig." He leaned over and whispered to his XO.

Gaeta looked up and turned to watch Adama leave, the marine in tow. He got out of his chair. "Where do you think you're going?" Tigh asked.

"Sir, is there any way you could tell me what-"

"What the Commander's doing? Some pilot's just turned herself in. Says she's a Cylon. The Marines don't know what to do with her."

Gaeta sat back down, panic beginning to set in.

_Oh Gods…_


	4. Chapter 4

Sharon sat alone in the brig. It had been twelve hours since she had turned herself in. Adama had questioned her extensively, leaving with an air of incredulity despite what she had told him about the water tanks and the causeway door. He had her lightly guarded and was arranging that the psychiatrist aboard the Inconveion be brought to speak with her. She had tried to tell him about the blood test, but her jaw had frozen. It terrified her, this continuous feeling that someone else was living inside her skin.

It was freezing in her little cell. She was only wearing her greens and the blanket folded on top of the cot was just as spare as the rest of the tiny cage. She shivered and rubbed her bare arms.

She heard the heavy door open, slightly scraping across the floor, with a high pitched whine. Gaeta stood in the hatchway, the light playing on his features, making him look almost skeletal.

Neither of them moved. She had been hoping against hope that he would come and see her, but she was terrified that he would be angry with her. Lately it had felt like he was the only person on her side and she was more then loath to lose him. She had been holding herself up until now; when the Commander was looking at her with a mixture of doubt and anger, when Chief had come to see her and she could see the lingering wariness in his eyes, as if she wasn't Boomer anymore, just someone dressed as her.

She didn't want to see those things when she looked at Gaeta.

_And what if you do? To hell with him! You made the right choice. You turned yourself in before you could hurt anybody. Don't you remember the voice earlier? You could have killed him!_

She blocked these thoughts out. He had just been trying to help her.

"Are you alright?" Gaeta looked down at his perfectly shined shoes. He'd never felt so completely inadequate before in his entire life. Sharon smiled hesitantly at him. "I'm fine. A little cold maybe…" Her smile started to fade. He wouldn't look at her.

"I'll bring you something." He turned to leave. "I'll be back soon." Gaeta dug his fingernails into his palms to keep from turning around and screaming at her. Starbuck had told him what they had done to the Cylon prisoner she had interrogated. What if they decided to do that to Boomer? What if someone lost it and shot her? Had she even thought this through?

He heard his grandfather's voice in his head, hectoring and imperious: "Felix one must always conduct oneself in a professional manner. How can anyone take you seriously if you let things like i emotions /i get in your way?"

As he walked down the causeway, he wondered vaguely whether or not he had drawn blood yet.

As soon as he'd left, Boomer curled onto her side on the small cot, cradling herself and fighting back sobs.

She stayed that way, hoping to fall asleep, until the Marine at the door brusquely stood at attention. She picked up her head to see the Commander. She immediately bounced up, standing at attention and rifling off a sharp "Sir."

"As you were." The old man stood in front of the bars of her cell, a hard light in his eyes.

"Lieutenant Valerii, Dr. Baltar told me about the blood test."

She said nothing. "Does anyone else know about your…condition?"

Boomer shook her head with no hesitation. "Not even Lt. Gaeta?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "Don't look shocked. Word travels fast around here." Adama gave her a ghost of a smile.

"I'm going to send someone to interrogate you just like any other Cylon agent. Since you've turned yourself in of your own free will and admitted to unknowingly committing acts of sabotage, I'm more inclined to be lenient with you Lieutenant." Boomer nodded. She understood.

Gaeta came back with a non-reg hoodie that he'd scrounged up. He asked the Marine on duty to wait outside for a second. His grandfather's voice trilled in his head, reminding him that emotion would only get him into more trouble. He clenched his teeth, willing the old man away.

He held the jacket out to her through the bars. He wouldn't meet her eyes. Instead he stood, waiting.

She didn't move from the place where she was sitting. "Why won't you look at me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're angry with me."

He continued to stare at the floor, his fists clenched, his knuckles turning white. She realized that he was holding back what he wanted to say and that he was completely furious with her.

She fixed him with a glare. "Just say it, Gaeta."

"You're frakkin A I'm angry with you!" Boomer flinched. She couldn't remember ever hearing Gaeta shout before. It just wasn't very…Gaeta. "For Gods' sake Sharon they could have thrown you out the airlock, no questions asked! They could be planning to kill you right now! They're going to lock you up and use you like some kind of lab animal! I may never get to see you again!"

"So I guess you think it would have been better for me to just wait until I'd hurt someone?" she snapped. "For all I know, I'm some frakking assassin. Or maybe I was supposed to blow up the entire ship? I don't even know if I'm still dangerous." She paused, waiting for him to say something. He didn't so she soldiered on.

"I could have killed you, Felix. Everything in my head was screaming for me to. It's like I'm two different people. I'm a Cylon. I'm…I'm not me anymore." Tears had begun to well in her eyes again and she blinked them away, ashamed at being so vulnerable.

"You know what? Just forget about it. All of this." She sighed heavily. She reached out her hand so that Gaeta could give her the jacket. Instead he took her hand through the bars. "Everything is going to be fine, Sharon." He used her name deliberately, wanting to comfort her. She smiled sadly at him. "You're a very bad liar Felix." He smiled back at her.

"Well we do have the authority on Strong AI on board." He hands her the jacket. "I'm sure he'll be able to figure out how to make you…safe. How to make you…I don't know. Just Sharon."

But Boomer hasn't heard anything he's just said. She's suddenly nauseous. Her head was spinning. She stumbled away from the bars, back towards the chemical head. She didn't make it, doubling over and puking all over the floor.

"Are you alright?"

Sharon wiped her mouth and spat. "I'm fine. Must be that nasty food catching up with me." Gaeta gave her a concerned look. "You don't want me to get a medic?" She stood up and felt herself sway, the room churning in dull colors. "No I'm…I'm…oh frak."

Gaeta saw her falling and reached through the bars towards her, shouting her name. Her head met the deck with a sickening smack. Without thinking, he turned and bolted out the hatch, yelling for help.


	5. Chapter 5

Doc Cottle and Lane Ishay powered their way down the corridor with Gaius Baltar in tow. Cottle hated the arrogant prick, but for this specific case, he might need him. He wasn't completely sure of how different the physiology of a humanoid Cylon would be from a human, but he wasn't taking any chances with this.

Lieutenant Gaeta had come to him, nearly hysterical, saying that Boomer had fainted in her cell and had thrown up just before. Cottle wasn't that concerned with the sickness he had described, so much as the fall. When the young woman had come into the infirmary the day before he had suspected that she was pregnant and it just appeared now that he was right.

He remembered the look Kim had shot at him while Gaeta had pleaded with him to come help the Cylon._ I won't help her. She's not one of us, and if you help her, you're one of them as far as I'm concerned_ the look had said. Cottle brushed this memory off. He had a job to do.

When the three of them arrived in the brig, the marine on guard was standing at her post, looking passively on at Sharon's prostrate form. Cottle could have slapped the woman. He pushed past her, barking an order to open the cell.

He kneeled down beside Boomer, opening his bag and checking for a pulse. Gently, he turned her head to the side, noting that the injury didn't appear too severe, just split skin and some bruising, no bone damage, but that was rarely an indicator of brain trauma. Gaeta and Baltar lingered back by the cell door, out of his way, just the way he liked. When he touched the open wound on her scalp she moaned in pain and Gaeta started forward. "Is she alright?"

Cottle shot him an irate look. "Back off. I need to get her to sickbay. Gods dammit, I shouldn't have let her leave after the last time you brought her in. I'm going to need-"

He was immediately cut off when Sharon woke up. She sat up abruptly, her posture rigid. She jerked her head towards him and grabbed his throat. She bared her teeth at him and he was shocked at what he saw in her eyes, which was to say nothing. For a moment, John Cottle was sure that this was it, he was staring his death in the face._ This definitely isn't how I pictured dying heroically_ he thought hazily. Just as he felt her hands twitch, ready to snap his neck like a twig, he saw Gaeta pull her back by her hair. A snarl issued from her lips as she fell back. The lieutenant caught her before she hit the floor again. As she struggled, her face pressed into his chest.

As quickly as she had changed before, she changed again. She went limp and Gaeta held her up. She looked around, seeming almost drugged. She looked up at Gaeta and, as if realizing what had happened, she burst into tears.

When Sharon had finally calmed down, they had gotten her to the med bay. Gaeta noticed one of the medics (_Kim_ he thought, _his name is Kim_) had given him a dirty look when he had gone to see her.

He ignored it. He had bigger fish to fry.

Boomer's eyes fluttered open as Doc Cottle pushed the curtain around her bed aside. He looked worried which immediately put her on edge.

"Well," he said. "Do you want the good news or bad news first?"

Boomer smiled wryly. "Good."

"Your blood work came back." He looked down at his clipboard and flipped through it. "You're not pregnant." Boomer gave him a quizzical look. There had never been any doubt in her mind that-

"You thought I was pregnant?" She looked at him waiting for an answer. He shrugged. "Hey, your boyfriend suggested it first alright? So don't look at me like I've been putting ideas in _his_ head."

She gave him a disbelieving look. "_Gaeta _thought I was pregnant? Why the hell would Gaeta think I was pregnant?"

Cottle looked at her, irritated. "Well smart-ass maybe it was because you were frakking him and throwing up and passing out. And do you want to know what the bad news is?"

Sharon, slightly cowed, nodded. "Now that we know you're not pregnant, I have no frakking clue what's wrong with you. I'm going to have run more tests, a lot more, just to figure out what the hell it is that makes you people tick! And whatever it is you have, it's getting a hell of a lot worse by the damn day." And with that, he turned on his heel and stormed away.

Boomer heard the voice again, echoing in her head _sleep sleep sleep sleep_ and she tried to shut it out, thinking of Felix and their imaginary baby. Dark eyes and curly hair. She almost felt a pang of regret for it. She'd ask him about it when she saw him again.

All of a sudden her muscles rebelled against her, the tendons in her belly rippling painfully. She clenched her fists and wondered if she was going to live long enough to see him again.


	6. Chapter 6

"I understand why the two of you are here. I just want you to know that I will listen to what you have to say and that no one outside of this room will be made aware of Lieutenant Valerii's…condition until further notice from the President."

Commander Adama looked at the two men in front of him. Lieutenant Gaeta and Chief Tyrol had come to him of their own accord. Adama had then called Doc Cottle into his quarters. Apparently the doctor was on his way, but it had been nearly fifteen minutes since he put the call out on the comm.

He now looked at Gaeta, who was standing very stiffly next to Tyrol. _Boomer's turning out to be quite the heartbreaker_, he thought and stifled a chuckle. But the thought of what she really was silenced him immediately. She was the enemy, a machine. His thoughts and memories began to contradict each other. Boomer finding the water supply,

(_what if she had blown up the tank herself?_)

essentially saving the fleet. He can remember the day he found her in one of the corridors between CIC and the flight deck, weeping. She had been christened "Boomer" that day in reference to her horrible landings. Adama had jokingly told her that his callsign had been given to him because of the way he talked, something he had always felt self conscious about ever since he had answered a phone call and been mistaken for his father at the age of 10. She had smiled at him, feeling better. _But she had been a Cylon! Had she been faking all of it?_ No, that wasn't possible. She hadn't known. And as soon as she had, she turned herself in, terrified that she would hurt someone.

He pulled himself out of this memory, concentrating on what was going on in front of him. "I know that both of you care about Boomer quite a lot. And I'm here to promise you that I will do all that I can to protect her." He wanted to continue but he needed to wait until Doc Cottle arrived. He knew that the two of them were here to ask that Boomer not be executed as Leoben had. He had no intention of doing so himself and had already submitted to the President that this particular Cylon would be willing to cooperate, especially given her relationships on Galactica and her current illness.

He turned back to the two men, noticing how awkwardly each of them carried themselves with the other. If he weren't so irritated he would have laughed.

"Do either of you have anything to say?" The Chief opened his mouth, when Doc Cottle burst into the Commander's quarters. "You two'd better get down to sickbay. Something's seriously frakking wrong."

----------------------------------

Gaeta stared straight ahead of him. He prided himself on always being put together and coolheaded in difficult situations. He didn't want this to be an exception.

He could hear the Chief's harsh breathing. It seemed so loud compared to the silence that had settled in the room.

Sharon's eyes stared up at him, cold and dead. _Like a doll's eyes_ he thought. He remembered the dolls his mother had had gathering dust in her room. They had all smiled dully and stared at him just the way Sharon was now.

Gaeta suddenly felt violently ill. He hated thinking of Boomer this way, as a giant, lifeless doll. She had always been so alive to him, even before they had started seeing each other. Perhaps she had never been as brash and attention catching as Starbuck, but she was so kind and funny and almost glowing in her presence. He remembered the day when she had walked into the CIC and simply started talking to him. She had asked him if he liked his job, why he was in the military, any number of completely ridiculous questions that had nothing to do with anything. He knew that he fell in love with her a little bit that day.

She continued to lie there, staring up at him, a bib of blood festooning her hospital gown. There was blood on her throat and caked on her bottom lip. He remembered kissing her just two days ago. She had been afraid, afraid of what Baltar would find in her blood, almost as if her own body had turned traitor, destroying her.

"She started to vomit up blood. We tried to give her a cimetidine IV to stop it, but she was too weak to process the drugs. After Doctor Cottle left… I was only away for a moment…" Ishay's calm voice seemed to break. She felt responsible, Gaeta realized.

"You still don't know what it was? The disease?" Chief asked quietly. "No." Cottle said. "I'm going to quarantine the body until the autopsy. But since she's a Cylon, I doubt that a human contagion is likely."

"Well I don't want you to take any chances with this. I want-" Gaeta stopped listening. He was trying to recall the exact feel of her throat against his lips. Had he felt her pulse? He thought of her hand pressed against his mouth and her breathless smile while he thrust into her. He looked away from the body but he could still feel it there, staring.

"May I go sir?"

Adama looked at him, frowning. The look on Gaeta's face shocked him. The man was nearly hysterical and it was completely foreign to Adama on his face. Gaeta was always calm and collected, rarely striking out, rarely displaying any emotion. Adama turned to Cottle who shrugged.

"Yes, Mr. Gaeta. You may go."

-------------------------------

It was dark. And then it wasn't.

She felt pain ripple through her body (_body?_), she felt long past kisses feather her lips, her stomach roiling with the anticipation of landing her Raptor in front of the Chief with Helo razzing her

(_but I was done_)

and then the booming scrape of another signature Sharon Valerii docking.

Her eyes flew open.

"Hello Sharon." A familiar face was smiling down at her in the dank, cold pool she was in. It was her own.

"Welcome home."

She fainted.


	7. Chapter 7

"I hate that thing."

Gaeta was sitting in the rec room, drinking with Starbuck. She was his most frequent partner. He was beginning to draw comparisons to Colonel Tigh. Most of the time Kara just sat with him to make sure he got back to his rack before he passed out or threw up on the floor. This evening however he had been more measured in his drinking. This statement was the first thing he'd said since she'd sat down.

"What thing is that Felix?" Kara asked, taking a long drag off of her cigar. "That _thing_ in the brig. You know…"

She slit her eyes at him. He was staring at the last sip of his drink, watching it sit at the bottom of his glass. "You mean Sharon?"

"She isn't."

"She isn't what?"

He tossed back the last of the drink. "She isn't Sharon." He got up from his chair, a little unsteady. "You know, that much whiskey used to be enough. I guess I'm not a light weight anymore, huh Starbuck?"

"Why don't you think she's Sharon, Felix?"

"Because she's just not. There's no way around it. She's just some cheap knock-off. I can't believe you can't tell just by _looking_ at her." He was getting steadily angrier. "Everyone is just walking around acting like Boomer is back. But she isn't. She isn't even real."

Kara let him carry on and said nothing. She knew better then to interrupt a drunk on a rant about his ex. Boomer was his ex wasn't she? Now that she was…well, dead. Or as close to dead as a Cylon could get. She let him rave on, wavering in and out of what he was saying, preferring to think about Anders, the resistance fighter she had left on Caprica when she had run into Helo and his new Sharon. Truth be told, the new Sharon kind of freaked her out. She was Boomer, but at the same time she wasn't. She could see how it would drive someone to drink. Even a guy as smart and straight-laced as Felix.

"- and everyday I have to see her and act like I think she's really Sharon in some different outfit and she's just FRAKKING NOT! I am NEVER going to see Sharon again, and that thing walking around acting like everything is the same just really makes me want to frakking hit somebody!"

Kara took another sip of her drink. "How do you know you'll never see Boomer again? She probably downloaded or transmitted or whatever to another body, all shiny and new." Gaeta looked at her wild eyed. "What?"

-------------------------

"As you know, we had another…Sharon, on board the Galactica before you arrived here with Lieutenant Agathon."

Sharon nodded serenely at the Commander. Ever since she had come

(_back_)

to Galactica she had felt at home. She did not miss the company of other Cylons; she had Helo and Tyrol and on occasion Kara. Lately Starbuck had been implying to her something about the previous Sharon to her. Sometimes it was extremely difficult for her to reconcile 'Boomer' and 'Sharon' and 'Eight'. It made her sad too. No one had told her anything about the gap in her memory. Boomer had had a whole life on Galactica while Sharon had been busy gallivanting around Caprica with Helo. Not that she would trade those memories for anything in the universe. But she had to admit, she was curious.

"Would you be willing to examine her body?" Commander Adama looked at her seriously, never breaking his professional veneer. "Why would you need me to?"

Her calm bothered Adama. She unnerved him. She was Sharon Valerii, but at the same time she wasn't. She didn't know about Boomer and Gaeta or about Boomer's confession or her illness. All of these details had been kept from her while Kara and Tyrol questioned her to see how much information the Cylons had access to, whether or not Boomer had been a surveillance agent, or if, perhaps, her placement on Galactica had been more sinister.

"We don't know what killed her. It was some sort of swift and fatal disease. She died within three days of contracting it." Sharon frowned. "Was it very violent?"

"Yes."

"Did anything happen before she contracted it? Did she say anything strange?"

Adama leaned across his desk towards her. He always felt like a high school principal when he sat behind that desk. "We've kept this from you until now, but before she died, Boomer confessed that she was a Cylon sleeper agent." Sharon's eyes widened slightly.

"Well, then I can tell you exactly what happened to her. Her programming released a virus into her system. It's like a cyanide pill for a human. If a sleeper agent, especially one in cover as deep as hers, would jeopardize not only themselves but potentially the entire Cylon race if interrogated properly. Her programming simply refused to let her live her life as a source of information to the enemy." She thought about this sadly. Boomer could have had a life here, if not for who she was.

-----------------------------

That night, after Helo had left, Sharon lay in her small bed in the brig. She thought about Boomer's death, one that had most assuredly been painful and horrible. She felt a twinge of compassion for her counterpart and she placed a hand on her belly for comfort. She could feel the new life swirling intricately inside of her.

The door to the brig opened. She sat up. Felix Gaeta entered. He stood outside her cell, completely silent. She didn't say anything either. One of the things that both the Chief and Starbuck had implied was something to do with Boomer and Gaeta. She had been curious, especially after Tyrol's angry looks and Kara's naughty grins. But Gaeta had not come to see her, like so many of Boomer's friends.

But now he stood and looked. She could see that he was angry. She didn't really understand why he was angry with her, after all they had never

(_really_)

spoken.

"Gaeta?" she asked quietly. "Tell me why."

"What?"

He continued to stare at her. "Tell me why she had to die. And tell me where she is."

"I…I don't know."

And just as suddenly as he had entered, he left, giving her a curt nod. Sharon watched him leave and again, wondered after her counterpart, who was so very far away from home.


	8. Chapter 8

_I am a Cylon._

Boomer repeated it to herself. _I am a Cylon_.

She smiled at herself.

The Eight lying docilely in the black tub of goo stared up at her. She had been hiding in the mountains on Picon, preaching a heretical religion of a destroyer/creator Mother Goddess. She believed that she was one of many incarnations of this goddess and led human rebels to retake Delphi.

_She is quite mad,_ the Threes whispered to her. _You should be the one to box her. You are her sister. _

Boomer secretly hated the Threes and she knew they hated her.

She put two fingers on the thin metal box at the side of the tank, pressing down. The Eight looked up at her. "I'm not a machine. I'm a goddess. You'll know my fury. You shall fall to your knees and worship me! You shall-"

Boomer pulled the box out of its place. The tank darkened and the Eight fell beneath the once glowing ooze. Her empty eyes stared up into themselves, mirroring back over and over and over again.

She slipped the box into her pocket, remembering again what it had been like to die.

****

Gaeta watched Dradis. The screen was blank. There had been no contact with the Cylons since the Great Turkey Shoot.

He had more and more time off since this sudden lull. He had gone to see the other "Sharon" since then. She had been curious about him and Boomer. She asked a few polite questions. She could remember talking to him as Boomer, the day in the CIC. But that was all. She remembered Chief and being with him but that was all. It was disconcerting to hear things that Boomer would otherwise never have told him flow so freely out of this…this woman's mouth.

To counter this steady stream of slightly degrading statements, Gaeta told her all about what Boomer had been like when they were together. Sharon listened intently as if there was some knowledge to be gained from these conversations. Sometimes he wished she would say something to make him feel less like he was making it all up. He hadn't seen Boomer in so long, he was beginning to feel like a stalker, laying out all his fantasies for his victim to inspect. It was creepy.

He had lost track of the days since he had seen the real Sharon. This seemed implausible to him; he was someone who was always counting, measuring.

He asked her "Do you believe me that all of this happened?"

She paused, as if wondering what he wanted to hear.

"Yes."

"Why? How do you know that this isn't some trick to test you for surveillance information?"

She frowned. "I don't know. It seems like a very convoluted story to come up with just for security purposes. And they already have my cooperation because of Helo. And if they really wanted something like that, they would have sent Chief, because we were already involved...I mean, Boomer was already involved with him, not me." She looked down at her hands for a moment, "Why bring in a whole new person? It wouldn't be logical." She shrugged.

Gaeta wasn't satisfied. Wasn't she supposed to be an exact copy of Sharon from the beginning of the war? Hadn't Sharon had any feelings for him then? Did it honestly matter?

His head was spinning from all of these odd, almost existential thoughts, the sort of thinking he wasn't used to. He was usually buried in exact calculation. Everything was quantifiable in his little universe in the CIC. He suddenly burned to be doing his job, a feeling so ridiculous that he had to keep a shout of laughter from bursting out of his mouth. "I should really go."

He put the phone back in its cradle and left as swiftly as possible, hiding his laugh behind his hand.

***

She could feel herself giving up. Everyday staring into the mirrors felt more and more like she was slipping away, slipping into herself. Over and over, she could hear the words of the others: _You are one of us, you are our sister, you are our destiny._ She hated them for it. She didn't believe in destiny, she never had. Destiny was for self-involved kings and similar small men, confined to dusty history books and dusty corners of military offices.

Memories of her home tugged at her heart, but when she tried to go back to them, through projection, copies of herself walked by, arm in arm with copies of herself all happy and dressed prettily. It made her feel sick, watching herself wandering the halls of _Galactica_ over and over again, hand in hand with another Sharon, a Doral, a Six The reflections seemed like they were everywhere and no matter where she went, the only person she couldn't find was herself.

A spiteful Three had told her about the new Sharon on board _Galactica_, about her baby, about Helo. This last part had made Boomer want to cry from rage. Helo had liked her, he had always liked her and for the Cylons to twist it this way…

Everyday, all she got was more and more angry. It seemed like cruel black spills of ink were seeping their way through her, permeating every layer of her. When she projected now, the walls were like white paper, with black shadows, sliding across them, their curved and hideous points reaching out and spreading like a thousand boiling veins, burning everything with fever in their path.


End file.
